Restrictions: The collection can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College. Some portions of the collection are restricted from research use. Those materials are marked in the inventory.

Rights:

The Donors retain all copyrights and intellectual property rights pertaining to the Materials for a period not to exceed 30 years. The donors grant to the College permission to use the materials for research or non-commercial purposes. Any commercial use must have the permission of the donors. On or before January 1, 2047, all copyrights and intellectual property rights pertaining to the materials will transfer to the college as an integral part of this gift.

This collection includes materials that were created as “work for hire” and copyright for those materials may be held by other entities.

Copies made for commercial broadcast or publication require the permission of the donor until January 1, 2047. After that time, they will require the permission of the Berea College Special Collections and Archives.

In addition, Michael and Carrie Nobel worked to validate and dignify the voices of those they documented. The spoken testimonials from southern mountain people historically have little overlap with most written accounts about them by missionaries, sociologists, regional planners and feature writers, whose stereotyping and assumptions often work against progressive human development in the region. In contrast, the material in this collection is meant to be used to affirm the diverse experiences of all who are documented within it.

Utilization of the materials from the Collection require careful consideration and respect towards all the people whose voices and images may be used. Commercial users must make a good faith effort to contact the interviewee for permission to use their recorded voices and images before including them in any production or written materials.

Technical Notes: Most, but not all of the audio materials have listening copies. Please contact Special Collections in advance to ascertain if a listening copy already exists.

These are records of West Virginia folklorists and musicians Michael and Carrie Nobel. Their work is mainly in the form of folklife and oral history documentation of social issues, communities, events, and people.

The collection consists mainly of interview and music performance audio recordings, photographs and interview transcripts related to their extensive work in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

Digital preservation of the recordings in Series 9, 12, 13, 14 and 21 was made possible by a Recordings-At-Risk grant from the Council On Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.